The Early History of China

The first recognized dynasty—the Xia—lasted from about 2200 to
1750 B.C. and marked the transition from the late neolithic age to the Bronze
Age. The Xia was the beginning of a long period of cultural development and
dynastic succession that led the way to the more urbanized civilization of the
Shang Dynasty (1750–1040 B.C.). Hereditary Shang kings ruled over much
of North China, and Shang armies fought frequent wars against neighboring settlements
and nomadic herders from the north. The Shang capitals were centers of sophisticated
court life for the king, who was the shamanistic head of the ancestor- and spiritworship
cult. Intellectual life developed in significant ways during the Shang period
and flourished in the next dynasty—the Zhou (1040–256 B.C.). China’s
great schools of intellectual thought—Confucianism, Legalism, Daoism,
Mohism, and others—all developed during the Zhou Dynasty.

The intersection of migration, amalgamation, and development has characterized
China’s history from its earliest origins and resulted in a distinctive
system of writing, philosophy, art, and social and political organization and
civilization that was continuous over the past 4,000 years. Since the beginning
of recorded history (at least since the Shang Dynasty), the people of China
have developed a strong sense of their origins, both mythological and real,
and kept voluminous records concerning both. As a result of these records, augmented
by numerous archaeological discoveries in the second half of the twentieth century,
information concerning the ancient past, not only of China but also of much
of East, Central, and Inner Asia, has survived.